Explanation:
July was a good month
for sunspots ... really big sunspots.
In fact, the full disk and inset pictures above show three large groups
of spots, photographed only a few days ago on July 28.
Together the
sunspots span
a region about thirty times the diameter of planet Earth.
Now rotating behind the Sun's
visible edge, these groups
followed close
on the heels of another
enormous sunspot group
which appeared in mid July.
All of July's monster sunspot groups could be viewed without
magnification, using safe solar observing
methods of course.
While
individual sunspots
are not numbered or cataloged,
groups of sunspots, designated solar active regions, are
given consecutive numbers
as they appear on the visible
solar disk.
That numbering began on January 5, 1972 and on June 14, 2002, reached
active region number 10,000.
At the 10k mark no door prizes were given and
no
disasters plagued our
fair solar system.
But since June 14,
active
region reports often drop at least the leading digit,
making these three active regions
AR 0050, AR 0039, and AR 0044 (top left to bottom right).